YOUNG ADULT BOOKWORMS ツ discussion

Taking into account both the Heroes of Olympus series and the Percy Jackson series, what are you favourite books?

My order is, from worst to best::

10) The Blood of Olympus- Maybe I'm judging it to harshly, but it failed to satisfy me and wrap things up. Probably the only book I was disappointed with.

9) The Sea of Monsters- From here out everything is good, but the Sea of Monsters was when the series was still trying to find its ground. It was good, but compared to the others not particularly memorable.

8) The Lightning Thief- Of course its special since its the first book... but it was the first book. It set things up amazingly, but didn't have the emotional stakes the others had, inevitably.

7) The Lost Hero- A nice start to a new series, but again suffered due to lack of emotional stakes, even though the adventure was great.

6) The Last Olympian- Great wrap up, and Percabeth! But ultimately I missed the usual quests in this, it was too heavily based in New York, which was good, but yeah...

5) The Son of Neptune- We saw Percy and a new camp! This is a great book, enjoyable too!

4) The Battle of the Labyrinth- Ok, this is where it gets REALLY tough to decide. The next four are my favourite, but... BoL was great but I felt more thrilled reading the others, whereas I felt this got sidetracked occasionally.

3) The House of Hades- Percabeth in Tartarus? The whole 7's POV? How can that not be awesome? Again, however, occasionally bits were unnecessary, and I felt some of the chapters like Hazel's first one was wasting time.

2) The Mark of Athena- There was so much expectation on this, and it delivered. The reunion, the meeting of the 7, the Argo II, it was just amazing. And that cliffhanger?

1) The Titans Curse- This might be controversial, but I think, while extremely extremely close, this is my favourite. We met so many new characters, it was the real beginning of Percabeth, had an awesome quest, and emotionally? You can't kill people like that Rick? It was well written all the way up to the fascinating ending in the Olympian council, this was the book that marked out the series to me.

But what do you think? My opinions change quite frequently, and some of these were really tough to decide.

What are the ones you didn't like, and what's your favourite?

For me I guess it's hard to say, it has been a long time since I read PJO, but I would say:

10) The Blood Of Olympus - I thought this was pretty poor, especially for Riordan.
9) Titans Curse - I've always thought this one lacked something special but it was still a very good book.
8) The Sea of Monsters - An awesome book, but the series hadn't reached that climactic state which really hooks you in yet.
7) The Lightning Thief - A great book, but the plot was pretty simple, although it was enthralling. It started the whole series off and introduced the whole thing though...
6) Son of Neptune - Despite having possibly the best plot, second only to HOH, the characters were a bit boring.
5) The Lost Hero - It started off the second series and so never quite had the intertwined plot threads that Riordan so magically creates, but still a great stand alone plot and exciting narrative (and POVs for the first time!).
4) The Last Olympian - Such a thrilling ending to a series which really wrapped it up. Included the results of the interesting plots built up over a few books which helped it immensely.
3) The Battle of The Labyrinth - Boy was this book good. This was probably the highlight of Riordan's book writing career until Mark of Athena came out, in my opinion. Top notch stuff.
2) The Mark of Athena - The peak of his writing style, this series had so many good plot threads interwoven into it that this book was mesmerising!
1) The House of Hades - This book took the seven characters and made them all take part in such an amazing plot, with the fast narrative constantly twisting and turning and it really was, in my opinion, his best ever book.

I guess I kinda disagree with you Arch, especially on the Titans Curse, but otherwise we are reasonably similar.

Oh and these are probably not exactly as I remember because I read some of them so long ago. I will be reread wing them soon, so I guess then I can make a more informed decision.

Wow, yeah.
I dunno, I just thought that Titans Curse was awesome because it had so many new awesome characters, a thrilling quest and plot, everyone we loved (at that point) was in it.
It marked out the series to me, and so I guess that's part of the reason I love it so much.
But it was a really tough choice to make, for me the top four are all so close. I thought as a whole Heroes of Olympus was a better series, until Blood of Olympus, I guess, but I know many would disagree

Here is mine from worst to best. Bearing in mind that when I say worst, it isn't necessarily a bad book but it probably wasn't the most memorable.

10) The Blood of Olympus - This book felt a bit lazy for me. So all they needed to do to vanquish Gaea is to lift her off the ground and send her to sleep? The only saving grace was the dynamic between Reyna and Nico.

9) The Sea of Monsters - It's a cute adventure but I felt wasted when Percy realized that the whole thing was merely a Kronos chessboard move.

8) The Lost Hero - I like this one. However the characters introduced are new and will be treated to a whole lot more character development later on.

7) The Last Olympian - This wraps up the first series quite nicely. This book is just Armageddon and I was expecting that.

6) The Son of Neptune - The highlight for me was the introduction of the Roman camp equivalent. I love the new characters and the concept of two - faced personality gods.

5) The Battle of the Labyrinth - This book contains tasty stuff. I liked the atmosphere of this very claustrophobic setting in both its darkness and uncertainty. The plot is also very captivating.

4) The Titan's Curse - I don't know why this is very high on my list as I also did not know why Prisoner of Azkaban was very high on my personal Harry Potter list. Titan's Curse is great, enough said.

3) The Mark of Athena - I loved the combination of Greek and Roman power. More tasty character development in this one. This is the road - trip book with the shocking cliffhanger.

2) The House of Hades - We get down to the nitty gritty in this book. The danger level just rocketed off the scale. This is one terrifying book with the 'cast - away - into - Tartarus' lovers battling it out in their deadliest adventure yet.

1) The Lightning Thief - This seems like a poor choice that can be justified with the amount of nostalgia that I felt for this one. This was the one that first drew me into the world of Greek gods, heroes and monsters. I'll never forget this special first installment.

I am not sure, but I know that Trails of Apollo is in the top 3!

10) Sea of Monsters
9) Percy Jackson-Lightning Thief
8) Titan's Curse
7) Son of Neptune
6) The Lost Hero
5) The Battle of the Labyrinth
4) Hero's of Olympus
3) The Last Olympian
2) The House of Hades
1) The Mark of Athena

10. Sea of Monsters
9. The Lightning Thief
8. The Son of Neptune
7. The Battle of the Labyrinth
6. The Mark of Athena
5. The Blood of Olympus
4. The Last Olympian
3. The Titan's Curse
2. The House of Hades
1. The Lost Hero

10) The Blood of Olympus - The book was so drawn out and the ending was really disappointing and rushed. My feelings about the ending are perfectly summarized in a statement by Leo in the first Trials of Apollo book (not in exact words). "Leading up to the fight with Gaea took a long time but the actual fight took like five seconds!" Another thing is that I couldn't mourn for Leo because I already knew he had the cure.

9) The Sea of Monsters - It introduced Tyson, which was cool, but the series hadn't really taken off yet and the main focus of it was showing off how overpowered Kronos was.

8) The Lightning Thief - It was the beginning but the writing wasn't the best it's been, and there was no emotional value.

7) The Last Olympian - This was a really good ending, and I was sad about Silena and Beckendorf, but it had way too much emphasis on New York.

6) The Lost Hero - The writing in this book was really fun for me, and I love rereading it over and over again. The three new characters felt like a fresh start and it was satisfying, especially because I felt like I could visualize a lot that happened, even the "crazier" parts (Aeolus's yard, Gaea in the Porta Potties, ect)

5) Son of Neptune - The plot of this book was probably one of the best, but then again, all the books did (minus the first and last). Introductions to Hazel and Frank, and hey! Nico! Roman culture was really fun to read about in this book, but the others were a little better.

4) The Titan's Curse - This book was the one that got me hooked on the series, and Rick Riordan's writing. All the amazing characters smushed into one book (and a shoutout to Zoe, who I really liked). Also, it introduced me to Nico, my favorite character (when he's not acting like a cliched emo edgelord). The writing wasn't as good as these other books, though.

3) The Battle of the Labyrinth - This followed through on my positive feelings on the last book. It was kind of darker than the other books, and when it ended I eagerly anticipated the last book.

2) The Mark of Athena - This book was really good, mixing Greek and Roman culture expertly, and the seven met up, and they went to Rome!!!! Annabeth got really nice development, and I loved the writing.

1) House of Hades - The plot for this book was awesome, and it was definitely the book that was the most dangerous, especially for Percy and Annabeth! I can't say anything negative about this book.

Oh very hard.

1) The battle of the Labyrinth
2) The Last Olympian
3) The Titan's Curse
4) The Lightning Thief
5) The Sea of Monsters

I put Heroes of Olympus over Percy Jackson any day (like my sister thus I'll rank the Heroes of Olympus books:-

1. House of Hades - The whole Eros part was a big shock for me and I loved it
2. Lost Hero - (Because my fav PJ character Leo was introduced here)
3. Blood of Olympus
4. Mark of Athena
5. Son of Neptune